The never ending job of maintaining your plant’s equipment is probably one of the most important things you can do to prolong the lifetime of this equipment; which in the end, saves time and money. Parts of machinery will wear quickly if there is friction between the metal surfaces, and lubricant and functional oils help; however, over time these lubricants and oils will form lumps and resin buildups and then more maintenance is required to clean and re-grease these parts.

A new ‘functional coating product’ researched and produced at the Leibniz Institute For New Materials (IMN), is eliminating the need for the use of oils and grease on plant equipment, while at the same time protects against corrosion. This product was presented by INM, along with other results at the TechConnect World Trade Fair in Washington DC, and you can read more about how this new technology for equipment maintenance works by clicking here…

The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), has some worried that because it allows the President to remove the tariffs on 11 countries, and would reduce the cost to manufacture products in these countries. This will impact any reshoring in the US, and ultimately impact the number of growing manufacturing jobs in the US, which will adversely affect the economy. The President is looking to expand the TPA and that has some companies on call deciding how to best handle this with the expected final call on the TPA being in 2016.

Because today’s manufacturing companies rely on high-tech equipment to run, they will need highly educated workers, and those workers cost money, so the appeal of offshore manufacturing to save money is even greater with this consideration. On the other hand, companies need to consider public outcry for companies that insist on continuing to manufacture outside the USA, with consumers preferring to do business with companies that are reshoring. To read more about the impact of the TPA on the economy and US jobs, you can click here…

Recalls have become big news in the last few years from food products to automobiles, and for those in the manufacturing industries, a recall can do serious damage to a companies reputation, income and can even destroy a business. As a result of the increasing incidences of recalls, manufacturing companies can expect between Legislators, NHSTA and the Food and Drug Administration, an increase in the scrutiny from these government organizations. Automakers in particular should prepare for an increase in penalties, an elimination of regional recalls and making all recalls national, and whistleblowers will now be able to collect a portion of the fines collected.

Manufacturing companies should not take their reporting requirements lightly, as any failure to report not just recalls, but potential safety hazards will result in multimillion penalties. Companies need to understand what kind of recall they are doing, and the best way to implement it to ensure meeting all government requirements and to maintain public opinion of the company. To read more about the impact of recalls on a company, and what can be done about it, click here…

Water utilities lose up to 20-30% of water due to infrastructure leakage, and sewer utilities can add the same amount to water flow during wet weather causing sewer flooding and back up. Fortunately due to a partnership between Electro Scan Inc., a provider of leak detection instrumentation and cloud applications for the water, sewer, and gas pipeline industries, and App Orchid Inc, manufacturers of cognitive-based solutions that collect and interpret information that is presented in gamified applications, these challenges may not be so daunting in the future.

No longer can industries rely on data collection systems to identify critical resources that use dated resources like information logs, emails, customer service calls, and field inspections, etc. Now with this new alliance and technology, industries can gather this information more intelligently and apply it to real working situations. To read more about this new development, and what it means for the water, sewer, and gas pipeline industries, click here…